I’m sure we all remember opening up theme decks such as Zap, Brushfire, Overgrowth, etc. when we were kids. My question is, are these a good investment for the years to come?
I picked up a couple for really good deals the other day. I’ve noticed the prices are generally pretty high on some of the older ones. Are those prices likely to increase? Or do you guys think they will level off at this point?
And, if they are worth investing in, does the same logic apply to the newer, more recent theme decks?
The decks are directly correlated with their holo prices particularly PSA 9/10. Sealed product is constantly being opened and has a limited supply; the base decks have a much larger print run being the unlimited run. The later WOTC decks have lower print runs compared to base
IMO no. The cards inside base set theme decks, fossil, rocket, jungle & rocket just aren’t very desirable. Exceptions being shadowless base set. Sealed collectors might be able to shed more light, but the prices have been very stagnant. Besides base set, you can practically buy the others I mentioned for the same price as they were during their release.
There are quite a few pricey theme decks, and they haven’t always been that way, skyridge and legendary collection come to mind, who knows what the next one will be to blow up? You can’t go wrong with sealed WOTC, good investment in my opinion, but the key is to diversify
I just opened a few shadowless base set theme decks. The cards are desirable yes, but also destroyed. At least the holo that is.
@milhouse has talked about it before and I was shocked just how bad they actually came out. The holo card lies on top and is covered in residue from the way they sealed the cards together. Any luck cleaning up those cards milhouse? I have a gyarados, mewtwo, and ninetales that I don’t know what to do with at the moment. Mint/gem mint looking except for the residue.
Oh I know, the theme deck holos are almost always ruined, but the shadowless commons/uncommons cards can be somewhat wanted (But was mostly referring to sealed collectors looking for the strip decks and the Starter deck).
I’ve wondered the same thing myself. There is a market for them. It think my biggest turn off with (the early) theme decks is the damage the cellophane does to the cards inside. I don’t know how long that packaging technique was used but I know it effects many of the base decks.
As acebren mentioned legendary collection and eSeries have certainly gone up a lot. Some from the ex line seem to be slowly creeping up in price as well. Obviously the ones with the most popular characters drive the higher prices.
From an investment standpoint it seems safe but not necessarily lucrative. I doubt you’ll loose money on them if you were to sell them down the road. But I also don’t expect them all to double/ triple/ +++ in price in the coming years.
Anything sealed, for the right price IMO is worth it. Older decks carry nostalgic value but newer decks, if they have playable cards are solely based on how much or what those few cards are worth. Newer items are generally over saturated and should be left up to the big stores that push product. However I have sniped multiple auctions now of people listing older theme decks, especially the gold strip ones and making a nice collection as they had no idea what the gold strip was.
The one thing I find undervalued is the Japanese 6 gym decks. Erika and Blaine for some reason seem to be over populated and can be picked up for very low costs. not many people even know these decks existed and as people become aware in the future when more and more product are reaching very high price points, these low end items will begin to gain traction.
Actually, PSA has recently been recognizing the Shadowless that come out of those decks as (ST) Stained. Recently a Mewtwo was graded a PSA 8(ST) and I believe it sold around $175+! Plus each deck comes with one of the original 4 starters Shadowless, and they’re second Evo, in multiples as high as 4. If PSA continues to grade these as Stained I could see collectors purely buying them in hopes of that
By far the most valuable and rare deck is the Diglett Error Starter. I listed one in 2001 on eBay and got 175.00 for it. After that I socked all my others in storage. That’s when shadowless starters were going for 40.00. In the last 15 years I haven’t seen another listed for what it is.
Are they? I have picked up more of those lately than shadowless ones. I have a few lying around still sealed, but never have seen any specifically advertised that way. The error card itself doesn’t do that well barely getting $20 as a 9 and $40 as a 10.
Y U So expensive Charizard!
